Author: Newsdesk

From the Sunday print edition:

Inside Brady’s business deals

Governor hopeful has been through economic ups and downs

By David Heinzmann and Rick Pearson, Tribune reporters

On the southwest fringe of Champaign along Interstate Highway 57 stands
the Curtis Road interchange, its ornate limestone overpass and
decorative red-brick towers surrounded by acres of open farmland.





It was envisioned as the catalyst for a massive residential and retail
development that would start with new homes built by Bill Brady, the
state senator and Republican candidate for governor. Instead, it’s an
overpass to nowhere.





Brady, a developer for 25 years, underestimated the cost of his leading
role and then backed away when city officials refused to provide more
taxpayer money. The deal fell apart in 2007, stalling other development,
and the land remains vacant.





The interchange represents the crossroads of Brady’s political and
business careers. As the first part-time politician running for
governor in nearly 30 years, Brady contends that his experience running a
successful business will help him solve the state’s financial problems.





"I think people are looking for someone who understands the intricacies
of business, how you manage people, how you perform services," Brady
said.





But his family firm’s recent struggles and the failed Champaign
development offer voters a more complicated picture.





Public records and interviews with city officials show that Brady
mishandled the sewer project he promised to build, improvements that
other developers were counting on. In November, Brady sued the
engineering firm he hired. But last week he quietly dropped the lawsuit
and placed the blame on the city.

The Curtis Road mess added to the hard times for a company that had made
Brady and his two brothers wealthy as they capitalized on a population
boom in Bloomington-Normal.

The Brady family has been well-known in Bloomington’s business community
for nearly a half century. Bill Brady Sr., the candidate’s father,
started building homes in the mid-1960s.





The company grew into a multimillion-dollar enterprise, but Brady’s
father overextended himself in the early 1980s. Years of losses and
sky-high interest rates pushed the company into bankruptcy in 1984 when
the elder Brady couldn’t keep up payments on about $2 million in debts
to banks and contractors, according to court records.





At the time, Bill Jr. was just out of college, married and working at
the family lumberyard. When the company emerged from bankruptcy in 1987,
young Bill was running the development side of the business, while his
father took a back seat running the lumberyard.





As Bloomington flourished in the late 1980s and 1990s, the family built
subdivisions with names like Waterford Estates and Fox Hollow. They
expanded their real estate sales business, developed a shopping center
to feed the new neighborhoods and created a bustling office park where
their own businesses are based.





"That time frame was just booming years for Bloomington," said Jesse
Smart, who was mayor from 1985 to 1997 as the area’s population was
heading from 80,000 to more than 120,000 today. "It was just the hot
spot of the state. Those were the heydays for developers."





Public records and interviews with downstate development professionals
paint a picture of a businessman who prospered from his deep roots in
the city. Known even to low-level city workers as "Billy," Brady became
the very public face of his family business, a member of
Bloomington-Normal’s civic and business elite. That success translated
into political capital for Brady, who was elected to the Illinois House
in 1992.





Ken Emmons, who retired as Bloomington’s city planner early last year,
said Brady was careful to maintain a solid public image.





"He doesn’t want to have a bad reputation, doesn’t want to alienate his
customers or the neighbors," Emmons said.





In fact, Brady has sometimes artfully avoided controversy.





When he bought a parcel zoned for industrial development near an area of
single-family homes, he planned to develop the land with apartments.
Instead of doing the work himself, he sold the land to an Indiana
developer who built subsidized housing in 2001. There was a rash of
opposition from nearby homeowners, but it was absorbed by the
out-of-town firm, Emmons said.





At its peak in 2006, Brady Homes had 34 employees and built nearly 200
homes, according to Brady. But in the recession that started in 2007,
Brady Homes, Pinehurst Development and a handful of related firms the
family operates have stumbled.





Brady’s personal tax returns, which he at first resisted disclosing,
showed that the company has lost enough money over the last two years
that he has not paid any income tax, even on his $78,000 salary from
the General Assembly.





In an interview last week with the Tribune, Brady said he started
re-examining the company’s future during his failed 2006 campaign for
governor. He said he looked at the firm’s fundamentals and reorganized
the business, with his brothers and partners laying off all but nine
workers who last year built nearly 100 homes.





As demand for new housing waned in McLean County over the last decade,
Brady has looked harder for new business in other downstate markets. He
built in Peoria and suburban Springfield. On the western border of
Champaign, Brady Homes started with a subdivision of houses and
townhomes called The Cove.





Brady’s next big project in town would be a more than 300-home
subdivision called Prairie Creek designed to capitalize on plans the
state announced in 2002 to build a new I-57 interchange at Curtis Road.
Planners and developers saw the Curtis Road corridor as the next wave of
expansion in Champaign. Brady saw the potential as well, and sought to
secure options on 120 acres of farmland adjacent to the interchange
site.





The homes Brady planned would lead the way for additional development
that would include shopping centers, restaurants and office buildings
the city had earmarked for the four quadrants surrounding the highway
intersection.





In 2003, the state legislature gave the local government authority to
take land for sewers along Curtis Road east of Brady’s property. A final
vote to enact the law occurred Nov. 4, as Brady was securing options on
the land he planned to develop. He voted for it.





Three years later, when the legislature re-authorized the sewer plans,
well after Brady began acquiring the land, he again voted in favor of
the measure. In 2007, Brady also voted for similar legislation allowing
Champaign and other local governments to seize property to build their
share of the interchange.





Although the actions would help move the interchange project along, and
affect the value of his land, Brady did not recuse himself.





"If I felt I had a conflict, I wouldn’t have done that," Brady said.
Later, in an e-mail, Brady said he believed the legislation had no
direct effect on his Champaign property.





Champaign officials were originally hesitant to allow developers into
the area because there was no sewer service. But when Brady offered to
build the pumping station and sewer connection to jump-start his
development, the city cut a deal with him with provisions to pay Brady
back a portion of the costs down the road.





But problems started early because Brady moved forward without an
accurate understanding of what the work would cost, said Bruce Knight,
Champaign’s planning director. Brady’s original $1.27 million cost
estimate was based on faulty assumptions, Knight said.





When proper bids were finally done, Brady’s share of the cost grew by
more than $1 million, and he balked at doing the work without getting
more money from taxpayers, public records show.





"We made a deal with Brady, in which clearly we were capping our
investment at (a certain) level," Knight said. More money from taxpayers
was not "justifiable," Knight said.





Brady contended Champaign officials were supposed to cover the higher
costs.





"Our attorney said the city had the right to nix the deal if they didn’t
like how the bids came in. The city nixed the deal," Brady said. "They
told us they didn’t have the money to pay it at the cost it came in. We
said, ‘That wasn’t our agreement. You agreed to reimburse us,’ and they
said ‘No.’"





Knight said Brady’s assertion is incorrect.





As Brady backed away from the plans, Champaign officials met with two
other developers who had planned to piggyback off the sewer system for
their own residential projects.





Soon, one of the other developers, Darren Rogers, was taking the lead in
trying to get the development back on track. In an e-mail to a city
engineer, he blamed Brady for the mess over pumping station costs.





"Engineering costs are too high primarily due to Brady changing the
design so many times. He needs to pay for a significant portion of those
costs," Rogers said to Roland White, Champaign city engineer.





In the end, no one could put a deal together to build the pumping
station, and as the bottom dropped out of the economy in 2008, the whole
project was put on a back burner.





Throughout the process, city officials said they had difficulty getting
Brady’s attention at critical times.





"He was often hard to reach because he was busy with other things,"
Knight said.

Posted by Rick Pearson at 6:30 p.m.

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn today said it would be “irresponsible” for lawmakers to defer until next year a required $3.8 billion payment to Illinois’ public pension systems when they return to Springfield next week to put together a budget.

But Quinn declined to say what he’d do if legislators decide to put off the pension payment. The state $is 13 billion in debt and lawmakers — particularly Republicans — are reluctant to borrow money to make the pension payment for a second consecutive year.



“This is a moment of truth for the next week for the members of the Illinois General Assembly,” Quinn said during an appearance on “The Steve Cochran Show” on WGN-AM (720).

“I would say that we need some fortitude here and some common sense,” the governor said. “If legislators just want to kick and the can down the road and not deal with fundamental problems that affect the people of Illinois, they’re not living up to their responsibility.”



Without naming names but clearly pointing at his Republican governor foe, Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, Quinn said it wouldn’t be fiscally prudent to force the pension systems to divest long-term assets to cover costs instead of borrowing money to make the payment.



“There’s some legislators out there running around saying don’t do this (borrowing),” Quinn said. “Well, they’re fiscally irresponsible and the bottom line is that’s going to end up costing millions and millions of more dollars than we should have to pay.”



When lawmakers left the Capitol on May 7 without a final budget plan, some of them contended the proposed spending outline too heavily favored education at the expense of human service programs. Since that time, Quinn has been regularly meeting with legislators.



“I think basically legislators felt they wanted to make sure these fundamental programs were protected and I think I’ve made it pretty clear that’s where I’m coming from as well,” he said. “I hope we can pass a budget that probably will not be perfect but it has to be good enough to move our state forward.”

Posted by Monique Garcia at 7:31 p.m.

Gov. Pat Quinn on Friday plans to sign into law a measure allowing people who were adopted as children to access their birth records to find out more about their past.



The proposal is sponsored by Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, who was adopted and has pushed to open adoption records for years.

The legislation allows anyone adopted before 1946 to get their full birth certificate information by filing a written request with the state adoption registry. Those born after Jan. 1, 1946, could learn the same information if they are over 21 and at least one birth parent has not requested anonymity.

Currently, birth records in adoption cases are closed unless a parent specifically requests they be open. Under the new law, birth parents would have until Jan. 1, 2011 to request that their identifying information not be shared.



That provision sparked opposition among some lawmakers who said some mothers assumed their identities would never be known. The measure passed the House 74-39 and the Senate 36-16. You can read the legislation by clicking here.

Feigenholtz argues that it’s a basic human right to be able to access one’s birth records.

Also scheduled to attend the bill signing are Sen. AJ Wilhelmi, D-Joliet, and Howard Griffith, a former fullback for the Denver Broncos who played at the University of Illinois. Griffith was adopted.

Feigenholtz had tried to pass the legislation since at least 2008.

Here’s a Tribune story from March 2008 on the topic:

Former Denver Broncos fullback and adoptee Howard Griffith  has spent many holidays surrounded by his wife, children, parents and other family. But he’s never been able to shake the feeling that something was missing.



"There’s always still a sense of loneliness because you truly don’t know who you are, even though you have this support system," Griffith said.On Monday morning, he stood in support of Democratic state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz of Chicago, who is sponsoring a bill that would give many adoptees at least 21 years old access to their original birth certificates for the first time since Illinois sealed the records in the 1940s.



The bill, which has been assigned to the House Adoption Reform Committee, will be voted on Thursday, said Feigenholtz, herself an adoptee.



"We’ve been deprived of our history and our identity," she said. "Chapter 1 of everyone else’s lives begins with a birth certificate, a document I and everyone behind me are prohibited from having."



The law would allow adoptees born before Jan. 1, 1946, to immediately get copies of their birth certificates. Those adoptees had access to their records until the state sealed them retroactively.



Anyone born after Jan. 1, 1946, will have to wait to retrieve the document until April 1, 2009, giving birth parents the opportunity to request anonymity through the state registry, Feigenholtz said. To have their names removed from the certificate, parents have to pay a $40 fee or fill out a medical questionnaire, said Melisha Mitchell, executive director of an organization called White Oak Foundation that provides post-adoption services.



Advocates of the bill are hoping the birth parents will opt to fill out their medical history, so their children can receive vital information, Mitchell said. If the parents do ask for anonymity, the adoptee can go to the courts five years from that date and initiate a search for updated medical information free of charge.



Of the about 2,000 birth parents registered in the state, only 17 have asked to remain confidential, Feigenholtz said.



Mitchell, a birth mother who chose adoption for her child, said many parents long to know that their child turned out all right.



"By the time our surrendered son and daughter reached adulthood, we just wanted peace of mind," she said.



Feigenholtz has spent a decade championing bills aimed at making it easier for birth parents to reconnect with the adult children for whom they chose adoption. In 1997, she proposed legislation that would have opened all Illinois adoption records if it had passed.



In 1999, she got a bill passed that expanded the state’s adoption registry, which allows adoptees and birth parents to document their desire to reunite and helps them find one another.



More recently, Feigenholtz succeeded in revising a law that used to require adoptees have a medical reason to petition courts for information about their parents. Now they can seek the help of a confidential intermediary for any reason.



WGN Radio personality Steve Cochran said supplying birth certificates for adoptees like himself is an issue of fairness.



"It’s something you ought to have because everyone else gets it," he said.

Posted by John Byrne at 2:08 p.m.

Minority- and women-owned businesses were paid $19 million less than they were supposed to get under city contracts two years ago because of widespread fraud, abuse and mismanagement of the city’s affirmative action program, according to a report released today by the city inspector general’s office.



That represented a 15 percent shortfall during 2008, the report stated. If that kind of shortfall were extended over 15 years, starting in 1995, minority- and women-owned businesses would have lost $400 million, it concluded.

Widespread fraud, abuse and mismanagement of the city’s affirmative action contract program caused minority- and women-owned businesses to be paid 15 percent less than they were supposed to get in a recent analysis of construction contracts by the city Inspector General’s Office, a shortfall that could reach $400 million over the past 15 years.



Inspector General Joseph Ferguson criticized the city in a report released today for not tracking actual payments to the firms that have won city contracts as part of a program started in the 1980s to diversify the companies getting public work.



"The city’s failure to collect all relevant data, its inconsistent application of the program’s rules and regulations, and a lack of cooperation between the user departments and the Department of Procurement Services have all contributed to the program’s poor administration," Ferguson writes.



City officials should consider directly paying subcontractors to prevent firms from using minority-owned "fronts" to get city work, then cutting them out of the actual projects, Ferguson writes.

Posted by Monique Garcia at 12:35 p.m.

Lawmakers plan to return to Springfield early next week to take up the task of finishing the state budget.



House members were sent a memo today saying they should return to Springfield Monday afternoon and plan to stay through Wednesday. Senators also are likely to return during that time.

Unresolved is a spending plan for the upcoming budget year. Negotiations came to a halt earlier this month when Democratic lawmakers who control the General Assembly couldn’t reach an agreement. On the table are a host of unpalatable ideas for lawmakers facing election later this year, including skipping this year’s nearly $4 billion pension payment, increasing the cigarette tax by $1 a pack and making massive cuts elsewhere.

Democrats want to send a budget to Gov. Pat Quinn by May 31. Going past the deadline means Republicans gain a say in budget negotiations.

Posted by Hal Dardick and John Byrne at 10:05 a.m.; last updated at 1:55 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley today rejected the idea that the Supreme Court is likely to overturn the city’s gun ban, but said that he will be ready to act quickly to put in place restrictions on gun ownership if it does.

 

It’s defeatist to prepare new gun laws ahead of the court’s ruling, which should come before the body recesses at the end of June, Daley said.

 

"You have to have confidence in the Supreme Court, Maybe they’ll see the light of day," Daley said at a City Hall news conference. "Maybe one of them will have an incident and they’ll change their mind overnight, going to and from work."

 

The mayor said if the court overturns the Chicago ban, as expected, he’ll quickly present new legislation to the City Council.

 

"Whatever the details of the court’s ruling will be, we will always find new ways to keep guns off our streets," he said.

 

Daley offered no specifics on what he will propose. But he talked about the possibility of ballistics tests for registered guns, so police can track them if they’re used in crimes.

 

He also said that if guns are allowed in Chicago, something has to be done to allow police, firefighters and other first responders know how many weapons are in a home as they respond to a call.

 

"If you get a call for domestic violence, or you get a call for a burglary, or you get a call that a man with a gun is outside someone’s home, and the police officer goes to the scene, goes to the door and sees a person with a gun, what decision does he have to make with regards to his safety and the safety in that home?" Daley said.

 

"When you think about that, you’re really placing the first responders in a much more difficult — with all the restrictions on police officers, what they can do and what they can’t do — we’ll have to give them a worksheet for them, where they’ll have to read it to you, take your FOI card out?"

During the news conference, Daley reacted with the help of a prop when a reporter suggested the city’s handgun ban has been ineffective, given the number of shootings that still occur in Chicago.

 

"It’s been very effective," Daley said, picking up a gun from the dozens displayed on a nearby table. "If I put this up your butt, you’ll find out how effective it is. Let me put a round up your, you know."

 

"But that’s why you want to get them out," he continued. "You want to get these out. This gun saved many lives. It could save your life."



The mayor mentioned the possibility of some kind of registry to let police know how many guns and what types are in each house, but said nothing has been finalized.

In 1982, the city barred the registration of additional handguns, but allowed those residents who already had handguns to keep them. That ordinance became known as the city’s handgun ban.

In June 2008, the nation’s high court overturned a similar ban in
Washington, D.C.. and justices are now weighing a Chicago case
that will determine whether that ruling should be extended beyond
federal enclaves.

Supreme Court justices are expected to rule next month on McDonald vs. City of Chicago. The court heard arguments March 2 on the case. At the time, Tribune Supreme Court reporter David G. Savage reported that most of the justices who two years ago said the 2nd Amendment protects individual gun rights signaled they are ready to extend this right nationwide and to use it to strike down some state and local gun regulations. You can read the rest of that story by clicking here.

In the D.C. case, justices did not close the door on all gun
regulation, and D.C. later enacted a law requiring gun owners to go
through five hours of safety training, register their firearms every
three years and undergo criminal background checks every six years.

More extensive training requirements for gun owners — such as that enacted in Washington D.C. — also is a possibility, Daley said.

 

"We’ll work harder to make sure only responsible adults can have access to guns across the nation," Daley said. "When you think about that, you have to go through driver’s ed and you have to get a license, you have to pass a test for drivers, but you don’t have to really do anything to own a gun," he said.




Preserving the handgun ban has been high on Daley’s agenda during
his two decades as mayor. For years, Daley also has pressed state
lawmakers for tighter gun control laws, including an assault weapons
ban,but has found only limited success in a state where gun owner rights are closely guarded downstate.

Posted by Ray Long at 12:01 a.m.



SPRINGFIELD — Chicago-area transit agencies that oversee bus and train service paid nearly $1 million to lobbyists to try to influence state government decisions over the course of a year — a significant share of the $6.4 million local taxpayers shelled out to make their interests known at the Capitol.



The findings came in an annual survey by the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, a non-partisan group that is calling for greater transparency to better track the public dollars spent on lobbying.



The four Chicago area transit agencies increased lobbyist spending by 4 percent to $953,484, doing business with 14 different lobbying firms between July 2, 2008, and June 30, 2009, the group’s survey showed.

The Chicago Transit Authority racked up the highest tab at $385,345 among transit agencies and all 119 government bodies surveyed for lobbyist expenses. Metra spent $264,504, the Regional Transportation Authority, $171,635; and suburban bus service PACE, $132,000.

RTA Chairman Jim Reilly said his agency is spending less than in prior years but is still working on far-reaching legislative issues, including seeking state money for public works projects and securing overdue state payments.

Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said the contract lobbyists are the agency’s “eyes and ears” in Springfield, working with lawmakers, testifying on legislation and monitoring proposals that might have a financial impact.

CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney said that unlike other government bodies, the transit agency does not have taxing authority and relies primarily on fares and public funding. The CTA “needs to be in the mix” in Springfield and needs skilled representation to work on the agency’s behalf, particularly in the tight financial times, Gaffney said.



Major transit issues during the survey period ranged from seeking more public works money from the state to scaling back the senior citizen free ride plan put in place by ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich before he was impeached, ousted and indicted. Blagojevich made free rides for seniors his price for supporting a sales tax increase for mass transit. This spring, lawmakers advanced legislation to allow for means testing to determine which seniors should qualify for free local bus and train rides.



The survey also found 15 public community colleges and universities spent more than $1 million on contract lobbyists. Of those, the City Colleges of Chicago ranked the highest in the survey, with $190,986 in expenses.



To collect the information, the reform group had to file Freedom of Information Act requests because the state, unlike the city of Chicago, Cook County and the federal government, does not require lobbyists to disclose how much they are paid.



There were discrepancies in the organization’s findings.



For example, Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, was included in the report because the Chicago Housing Authority provided the group information about Brown’s $1,500-a-month contract when the reform group requested lobbyist information, said David Morrison, the group’s deputy director.



But CHA spokeswoman Kellie O’Connell-Miller said the CHA’s response was a mistake. She said Brown does not lobby for CHA, but rather has a contract to give “strategic counsel” to the agency’s senior staff. Brown also said he does not lobby. He said he performs communications work and addresses strategic matters. Brown has a $98,000-a-year state contract as Madigan’s spokesman.

Posted by John Byrne at 12:42 p.m.

Democratic Cook County Board President candidate Toni Preckwinkle said today that she won’t eliminate the rest of a controversial county sales tax increase until 2012 at the earliest.

That’s because budget experts told her next year’s shortfall could reach $500 million due to a poor economy, elimination of federal stimulus cash and the already-approved half-cent sales tax reduction.

 

"I see ahead a very, very difficult budget year," Preckwinkle, the city’s 4th Ward alderman, told reporters at a news conference with Mayor Richard Daley to discuss a trial health care program for city schools.

Preckwinkle, who won the Democratic primary over Board President Todd Stroger and two others in February, campaigned on a pledge to eventually get rid of the entire one-percentage-point sales tax increase. The total sales tax rate in Chicago is 10.25 percent, but that will drop to 9.75 percent on July 1 after commissioners voted to roll back part of the tax hike.

Preckwinkle said she would cut the rest of the sales tax increase over time as she found new sources of revenue and ways to reduce costs. She said one possible way to cut local tax costs is to secure more federal funding for the jail and health system.

The 2011 county budget year starts Dec. 1 — before Preckwinkle would take office if she is able to defeat Republican Roger Keats and Green Party candidate Tom Tresser in the Nov. 2 election. The winner is expected to have a hand in shaping the new budget, which does not have to be approved until after the start of the next president’s term.

Preckwinkle said today she will do away with the rest of the Stroger increase, but added that the sharper picture she now has of the county’s financial trouble will cause her to proceed with caution.

 

"Since (the) February 2nd (primary election), we’ve put a lot of energy into figuring out what we’re going to be heading into, and the short answer is, we’re heading into a buzz saw," Preckwinkle said. "So – given the loss of revenues in the way I’ve described… we’re just going to try to get a handle on things when we walk in the door, and look down the road for opportunities to make further cuts in the sales tax."

 

The earliest that could happen would be 2012, she said.

"I’m not sure (I’ll be able to repeal it in 2012)," Preckwinkle said. "I’m hopeful that the economy will pick up, and that a rising tide will lift all boats, and that the finances of local government and state government and national government will improve in part because the economy is improving. We’ll see what happens."

Preckwinkle also reacted to Tribune and Fox-32 reports that the Stroger administration recently awarded a series of census outreach contracts at just below the $25,000 threshold that would require approval from the county board. That’s "not the choice I would make in his place," Preckwinkle said.

Posted by John Byrne at 11:39 a.m.

Mayor Richard Daley suggested Police Supt. Jody Weis should consider taking a pay cut as public negotiations of a new contract for Chicago’s top cop continued today.

"I think it would be up to him, sure, if he’s willing to do it. Sure, everybody should do it," said Daley when asked whether Weis should accept less than the roughly
$310,000 he now gets.

Weis said Tuesday that he is open to talking about a pay cut as part of negotiations to extend his
three-year deal that expires next March.





The mayor said all public officials need to accept less in light of
ongoing economic troubles.





"I don’t think that’s (Weis) alone, I think it’s important that
everybody sacrifice, for the people of our city, our state and our
nation," said Daley, whose mayoral income has dropped due to unpaid days off that are part of budget-cutting moves. The mayor’s salary is set by law.





"If you don’t, then people are living in a different world, they don’t
realize that people are suffering," Daley said at a news conference
about a school health pilot program at Reavis Elementary School on the
800 block of East 50th Street.

Posted by Hal Dardick at 7:36 p.m.

Two top aides to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger sidestepped the need for commissioners’ approval in doling out nearly $150,000 in census outreach work to people they knew.

The eight contracts are among those being investigated by the county inspector general’s office as it continues to probe Deputy Chief of Staff Carla Oglesby and a company she owns, officials said.



The investigation was launched in the wake of disclosures that a public relations firm owned by Oglesby, spokeswoman for Stroger’s failed re-election bid, was paid just under $25,000 by the county days after Stroger put her on the payroll at $120,000 a year.

Oglesby sought approval for the census outreach contracts. She and Eugene Mullins, Stroger’s spokesman and boyhood friend, picked the eight firms and individuals hired to promote census participation, Mullins said.



Nearly all of the deals were for $24,995 — $5 less than the $25,000 that would have required county board approval. That raised questions among commissioners as to whether the Stroger administration purposefully skirted contracting requirements.



“I would certainly think they wouldn’t have that many contracts that were $24,900,” said Commissioner Larry Suffredin, D-Evanston.



Commissioner John Daley, D-Chicago, the Finance Committee chairman, also said he’s concerned about the contract amounts.

“All of this is under review by the inspector general,” Daley said.



Oglesby returned to work last week after serving a five-day suspension imposed by Stroger, who initially said the time off would last until Inspector General Patrick Blanchard concluded his investigation.



Mullins received a significant raise after Stroger’s last place finish in the Feb. 2 Democratic primary election. He said Tuesday that his raise was being reversed in the wake of publicity.



Mullins said the contracts were handed out to firms and individuals who could wage grass-roots efforts to get more people to participate in the census.



The contracts were sought by Oglesby on April 15 and 16, and checks were issued to six of the firms one week later. None of the firms returned calls asking them to explain the work they were doing.



Invoices submitted by two of the contractors — K. Gregory Demos and the Illinois Human Development Council — were nearly identical and included the same unlisted phone number. Mullins said the Human Development Council contract, which had yet to be paid, was canceled in the wake of questions by the Tribune and another media outlet.



Mullins said the firms were chosen after it was determined the county still had federal funds allocated to promote census participation. “Either we can spend the money the best we can or it goes back to Washington,” Mullins said.



But leaders of the Cook County Complete Count Committee, appointed by Stroger to conduct census outreach, said they were unaware of the contracts.



“Our work has essentially wound down, because the census bureau was putting people out on the street,” committee Chairman Albert Pritchett said.



The contracts were designed to get more people to participate in the door-to-door portion of the census, after the mail-in deadline had passed, Mullins said.



One census expert said outreach could help at this stage of the game. “The big message right now is that the census is not over,” said Terri Ann Lowenthal, a consultant for the Funders Census Initiative. “It’s far from over, and it’s reached its most critical stage.”

Posted by John Byrne at 4:23 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley said today that the city is getting more aggressive about dealing with abandoned buildings that continue to proliferate in the down economy.

 

Several city departments are now linked in a computer system that tracks complaints against "problem buildings" and automatically sends e-mails to the banks that often own them, Daley said. The centralized system came online about a month ago.

 

"It just allows us to better manage these buildings, and alert us if we see problems," said Police Supt. Jody Weis, who said abandoned buildings are often havens for crime.

 

And a Cook County Circuit Court finding that the city can sue in Housing Court rather than Chancery Court to take over and demolish abandoned buildings has sped up that process considerably, the mayor said.

 

"It’s between a three-year process (in Chancery Court) and maybe 180 days, six months (in Housing Court), maybe shorter," Daley said at a news conference at the West Englewood branch library.

 

Daley has pressed for legislation in Springfield that would make banks responsible for the upkeep of any properties they own, but the proposal has stalled in the General Assembly.

Posted by John Chase at 3:46 p.m.

While it wasn’t a surprise, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce today endorsed Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk, saying the North Shore congressman has a depth of experience and history of bipartisanship to help create more jobs throughout the state.



The endorsement doesn’t come with any money, but Kirk said he the support shows business leaders back his economic philosophy of being more fiscally conservative. The business group has long endorsed GOP candidates for various offices, though Kirk noted it did endorse Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin in 2002.

Calvin Butler, chairman of the chamber’s board of directors, said Kirk’s proposed “Small Business Bill of Rights” is a major reason for the endorsement over Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias. Kirk’s plan calls for exempting small businesses from capital gains tax for a decade and slashing government paperwork.

“He also cares about small business and is committed to policies that create jobs and promote economic growth,” Butler said.



The endorsement served to highlight numerous economic policy differences between Kirk and Giannoulias. Kirk endorses keeping President Bush’s tax cuts in place and opposed President Obama’s $787 million economic stimulus bill. Giannoulias supported the stimulus bill and opposes extending all of Bush’s tax cuts.



Giannoulias’ campaign said Kirk’s votes in Congress have cost the state and the nation jobs.

Kirk said he opposed the stimulus plan because he felt that the bills endorsed spending money the nation doesn’t have. “That’s why, I think, we need a more fiscally conservative policy in Washington,” Kirk said.



In making the endorsement, the chamber received a questionnaire from Giannoulias’ campaign but the Democrat did not participate in an interview with the full chamber board of directors. Kirk did do the interview, Chamber President Doug Whitley said.

Posted by Hal Dardick at 3:35 p.m.

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger scored a rare victory today when commissioners could not muster the votes to make stick a hiring freeze they tried to impose in the wake of the latest county hiring controversy.

The board voted 9-6, with one commissioner voting present, to override Stroger’s veto of the freeze. That was two votes short of the number needed to thwart Stroger and restrict hiring.

Just two weeks ago, the board voted 16-1 to approve the freeze. Today, however, commissioners were presented with an opinion from the state’s attorney’s office that concluded the freeze would not survive a legal challenge.



The board cannot restrict the authority of Stroger or other elected officials to hire, fire and promote individuals, as long as he stays within the confines of the budget approved by commissioners, according to the opinion by Asst. State’s Atty. Patrick Driscoll.



“The ordinance would result in an unconstitutional change in the form of government,” Driscoll wrote in response to a question posed by Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno, D-Chicago.



Stroger had threatened to sue if commissioners overrode his veto. The ordinance would have barred further hiring by all elected county officials.



Exceptions would have been made for the Cook County Jail, so it can meet federal standards, and the independent Health and Hospitals System, which is being reorganized. The board also could have approved “emergency” hires.



Two other measures designed to rein in Stroger’s authority that also were approved two weeks ago remain in place. They require Stroger to report within three days all contracts, new hirings, firings, promotions and raises not previously approved by the board.



The board’s move came after disclosures that Stroger’s administration paid $24,975 to a company owned by Carla Oglesby, who Stroger hired for $120,000 as a deputy chief of staff after his failed re-election campaign. Oglesby was the spokeswoman for Stroger’s campaign.



Oglesby was suspended for five days but returned to her job last week, after Stroger first said she would be suspended until the conclusion of an investigation by the county inspector general.



The contract for Oglesby’s company is one of the items being looked at the by the inspector general, sources said.

From today’s print edition:

Blagojevich trial judge regarded as smart, unflappable

‘Renaissance man’ to preside over case alleging dark ages of
politics

By Jeff Coen and Bob Secter, Tribune reporters

Do you ever wonder what spins through a judge’s head while lawyers and
witnesses drone on endlessly for days and weeks at trial?





In the case of U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel, who is scheduled to
preside over the sweeping corruption trial of former Gov. Rod
Blagojevich in a little more than two weeks, there’s a good chance those
thoughts sometimes drift to grandly larcenous fantasies.





How else to explain "Money to Burn," the well-received 2002 novel penned
by Zagel about a federal judge who masterminds an audacious heist at
the super-secure Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago? (Spoiler alert: The
judge gets away with millions of dollars.)

Zagel may have an active imagination, but his broad list of admirers in
Chicago’s legal community view that as just another example of why he is
regarded as one of the smartest and most unflappable jurists at the
federal courthouse.

"He is definitely one of those people who can do the job well with half
of his attention," veteran lawyer Joel Bertocchi said of Zagel, who has
had parts in two Hollywood movies and whose broad interests range from
jazz to target shooting with court security officers.





At 69, and with more than two decades on the federal bench, Zagel boasts
a resume to qualify him as one of the most interesting men in Chicago.
He helped prosecute mass murderer Richard Speck, twice held state
Cabinet posts and was once married to TV investigative reporter Pam
Zekman.





As a jurist, he also moonlights on the secretive Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court that decides whether to issue warrants for electronic
eavesdropping on terrorism suspects.





In 1965, after graduating from the University of Chicago and Harvard Law
School, Zagel joined the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, where
he helped gain the conviction of Speck, the notorious killer of eight
student nurses on the city’s Southeast Side.





From 1970 to 1977, Zagel ran the criminal division of the Illinois
attorney general’s office. One of his assistants was Jayne Carr, who
would later marry Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson. As a colleague, Jayne
Thompson said, Zagel was hard-driving, meticulous with the law and
possessed of an "encyclopedic memory."





"He can sit down and write a legal pleading and fill in the citations,
including the page numbers, without bringing out a book," she recalled.





Zagel eventually went to work in Thompson’s administration, first as
director of the Department of Revenue and then as head of what was then
known as the Department of Law Enforcement.





One of Zagel’s deputies, Laimutis "Limey" Nargelenas,
then-superintendent of the state police, said Zagel was a hands-off
manager who gave his underlings broad latitude and didn’t see the need
for a lot of meetings.





"Sometimes he’d be working on a crossword puzzle while you were talking
to him," Nargelenas recalled. "But he was always listening and very
quickly comprehending what the problem was you were talking about."





Nargelenas said Zagel flashed a dry sense of humor that sometimes left
people wondering whether he was joking or not. Even back then,
Nargelenas said, it was clear that Zagel not only had an interest in
being a judge but also in writing and acting. "I sort of thought of him
as a Renaissance man," said Nargelenas, now a lobbyist for the Illinois
Association of Chiefs of Police.





Zagel was appointed to the federal bench in 1987 by President Ronald
Reagan, and while his law enforcement background has given him a
reputation for leaning toward the government’s view, he is widely viewed
by members of the defense bar as predictable and fair.





"I think he’s very, very bright. Even when he doesn’t know the answer,
he certainly acts like he does," said criminal-defense lawyer Rick
Halprin, who faced Zagel daily in the high-profile 2007 Family Secrets
trial. It ended with the convictions of five top associates of the
Chicago Outfit who had been charged in a broad conspiracy blamed for 18
murders.





Halprin, who represented mob boss Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, said Zagel
did a good job managing a case with colorful lawyers in a circuslike
atmosphere — a climate likely to be repeated in the Blagojevich case,
which features a star defendant and legal team with flairs for the
dramatic.





In Family Secrets, Halprin said, Zagel kept control both inside and
outside the courtroom. In one telling example, Zagel told an attorney,
Joseph Lopez, that he couldn’t write an Internet blog while the case was
on trial.





In that case, Zagel met with the lawyers before court each day to flush
out potential legal conflict so things could remain orderly in front of
the jurors, Halprin said. And while Zagel always remained personable, he
didn’t put up with much.





Zagel also is well-regarded among prosecutors, a fact demonstrated by
the way they worked courthouse procedures to steer the Blagojevich case
his way.





"He runs a no-nonsense courtroom," said former federal prosecutor Sergio
Acosta, who has appeared often before Zagel. "He is one of the most
highly regarded judges in the building."





In 2008, Zagel was appointed by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts
to a seven-year term on the intelligence court.





It’s unclear what kind of storylines that duty might put in Zagel’s head
or whether it will lead to a new novel after eight years. He’s in a bit
of an acting drought as well, as his last role was as the grieving son
of a murder victim in Chicago writer David Mamet’s 1991 film,
"Homicide."





Using the stage name J.S. Block, Zagel also appeared in the 1989 film
"Music Box," about a suspected war criminal on trial in Chicago. Zagel,
whose middle name in real life is Block, played a judge in the film. Its
courtroom scenes were shot at the same Criminal Courts Building that he
once prowled as an assistant state’s attorney.





Acting bug or no, Zagel will likely have little time for such pursuits
this summer when the only blockbuster he’ll be tackling is the
Blagojevich trial, which is scheduled to begin June 3.





The ousted Illinois governor will face a jury for allegedly leveraging
the powers of his office to enrich himself and a group of cronies. The
centerpiece of the prosecution case involves Blagojevich’s alleged
attempt to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.





It’s a trial that promises to last into the fall and generate nationwide
headlines. It will feature some of the biggest guns in the U.S.
attorney’s office up against the wily father-and-son defense team of Sam
Adam and Sam Adam Jr. Adding to the suspense, the outspoken ex-governor
has promised to take the witness stand in his own defense — a right
many defendants forgo for tactical reasons.





The judge, said Bertocchi, "will want the result of this trial to speak
well of the legal system."





For all his accomplishments, achieving such an outcome could be Zagel’s
biggest challenge to date.





[email protected]





[email protected]

Posted by Hal Dardick at 12:18 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley this morning helped launch a new program — funded with $25 million in city money — to retrain unemployed workers so they can get full-time jobs in the technology based economy.

The city plans to tap proceeds from the long-term lease of city parking meters to help fund the Chicago Career Tech program over the next three years, during which the city hopes to retrain thousands of people.

“There are no old businesses left,” Daley said, after addressing the first 175-person class about to start in the program. “They are all changing through technology. And those that change survive. . . . We have a great work force, and we just have to give them the opportunities and the training and the retraining.”

CNA, Microsoft, Northern Trust Bank, the Joyce Foundation, the United Way and other groups are providing support and services. The state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is providing a $300,000 grant.

The program’s participants range in age from 25 to 63, said Marie Lynch, its executive director. The average age is 46. All are city residents, earned between $25,000 and $75,000 at their previous jobs and have at least a GED.

During the six month program, they will work six days a week: two days in the classroom, two days at job shadowing and two days of “service learning” at not-for-profit groups.

The next class, which starts in October, is expected to have twice as many students, Daley said.

Posted by Kathy Bergen and Ray Long at 4:09 p.m.

The General Assembly’s chief adviser on
McCormick Place delivered a
sweeping blueprint for change Friday, calling for privatization of
convention center management and a state-imposed easing of restrictive
and costly show-floor work rules. An interim legislature-appointed
czar would oversee the transformation.

The proposal, if ultimately approved, would lead to the ouster of Juan
Ochoa, chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition
Authority, the state-city agency known as McPier that owns and operates
McCormick Place and Navy Pier. And it would reduce McPier to a
stripped-down caretaker role, reducing its payroll from 400 to somewhere
around 35 or 40 employees.

Posted by Hal Dardick at 4:15 p.m.



New Chicago city employees should retire later with lower pension plan benefits, even after contributions to those plans are increased, according to a report released today by a committee Mayor Richard Daley appointed more than two years ago.



The changes are needed because there is only $10.9 billion in the city’s four pension funds — a shortfall of nearly $14.6 billion, states the report by the Commission to Strengthen Chicago’s Pension Funds.

Without changes, closing all but 10 percent of the gap would require that the city pay $710 million more a year into the funds starting in 2012. The city’s current budget is $6.1 billion, and in recent years Daley has tapped reserves to balance it. You can read the report by clicking here:
Download Pensionreport



Boosting city contributions could require both employees to pay more and significant tax hikes, though Daley ruled out tax hikes last week when talking about the issue.



Absent pension reforms, the firefighter’s pension fund could go broke in just 10 years, followed by the fund for police officers about 12 years later.



Daley’s administration released the report late Friday afternoon, an approach City Hall sometimes employs to ensure scant media coverage, particularly of a complex issue.



The mayor has had the report since March 31, according to a dissent report issued by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, which was part of the commission. The Civic Federation budget watchdog group also disagreed with the commission’s recommendations.



Those groups concluded that pension payments should be reduced going forward for existing employees, as well as new employees, while contributions from employees and the city are boosted.



“Our concern is that the recommendations did not go far enough to restore the funds’ financial health,” said Laurence Msall, president of The Civic Federation, who said the city also needs to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in services, starting next year, even with increased contributions to the plans.

“We believe that this is a very, very serious issue,” Msall said. “It impacts the city’s financial health, and it impacts how the credit agencies evaluate the final health of the city.”

R. Eden Martin, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, said the city’s recommendations would only halt the growth in the pension shortfall, rather than reduce it.

"The state’s the one that created the problem, not the city,” he added. “The city is the one that’s stuck with the problem.”

From the Breaking News Center:

Zagel said the defense motion
fell "very short" of demonstrating a need to subpoena the president.

The
defense had said it wanted to question the president about
Blagojevich’s alleged attempt to sell the U.S. Senate seat left vacant
when Obama was elected.

Read more from Tribune federal courts reporter Jeff Coen by clicking here.

Posted by Monique Garcia at 1:05 p.m.

As lawmakers enter the waning days of the spring session, Gov. Pat Quinn today toned down his sometimes heated rhetoric about making an income tax increase part of a new state budget.

Quinn refused to say if he’d sign a budget if it did not include his proposed 33 percent income tax rate increase. The governor said he was confident lawmakers would find a solution next week before their scheduled departure May 7.

"Most of the time the Illinois legislature in its last week gets more done in terms of actually passing bills than all the previous weeks put together," Quinn said following a Chicago news conference to commemorate Polish Constitution Day. "So I am anticipating next week to be very busy."



Quinn also signaled that he would be open to alternatives to fill the budget hole beyond his tax hike proposal, including a cigarette tax increase and additional borrowing, though he called that "the least best alternative."



"I think the most important thing is to have proper education funding in Illinois, that’s the outcome that’s just indispensable," Quinn said.



Still, Quinn warned that he wouldn’t sign off on any plan just so lawmakers could go home for the summer, noting he vetoed the first budget that was sent to him last year.

"I want to see the final product of the legislature, if it doesn’t have proper funding for education you can bet your life that, you know, we will be working and working until we get to that point," Quinn said. "You cant go backwards on education and have a strong economy in Illinois."

Lawmakers today went home for the weekend in anticipation of addressing the budget starting Monday.

From the Breaking News Center:

Pagano, Metra’s gruff boss of
commuter rail operations for the
last 20 years, is under scrutiny for possible financial irregularities
involving an alleged "bonus" of $56,000, officials have said.

Read more by clicking here.